Graceville Uniting Church, Methodist church in Graceville, Australia.
Graceville Uniting Church is a heritage-listed former church complex at 215 Oxley Road, Graceville, Queensland, comprising three buildings designed by Walter Taylor: the 1917 church hall, the 1930 former church, and the 1951 memorial hall. The former church is cruciform in plan, built of precast concrete with 33 exterior buttresses representing the 33 years of Christ's life, and features 1,450 Gothic arches and 8,000 panes of tinted cathedral glass.
The Graceville Methodist congregation began in August 1914 as a Sunday school using sheds on the recreation grounds. In 1917 Walter Taylor designed a hall on land in Oxley Road, opened on 3 November 1917 and built by voluntary labour. Taylor's church on the corner of Verney and Oxley Roads had its foundation stone laid on 2 March 1929 and was opened by Governor Sir John Goodwin on 29 November 1930; the memorial hall followed in 1951. The church closed on 27 March 2022.
The site's name recalls its origins as Graceville Methodist Church, part of the Sherwood circuit until the congregation became separate at the end of 1917. The 1930 church was built as a parable in stone: 33 exterior buttresses for the 33 years of Christ's life, walls divided into seven bays, and three windows per bay for the Trinity. In November 1937 Mrs Taylor gave two trees, planted in the grounds.
The complex stands at 215 Oxley Road, a short walk east of Graceville railway station, with the three buildings grouped on one site. The former church closed on 27 March 2022, so check locally before planning a visit inside. The churchyard was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 24 September 1999.
The church's walls are braced by 33 buttresses, one for each year of Christ's life, and each bay holds three windows as a trinity of light. In all, the building carries 1,450 Gothic arches and 8,000 panes of tinted cathedral glass. The precast concrete elements were made in Walter Taylor's own workshop and assembled on site like masonry.
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